Another release that may appeal to the fans of doom/sludge/drone ambient - this time from a Cascadian band. If you liked it, you can buy it off bandcamp for only 3$ (the band is trying to make back some costs of production and also raise some funds for making tapes).

"Though we may not fit neatly into the "anarchist black metal" category,
we are heavily influenced by the Cascadian BM scene. (Wolves in the
Throne Room are the home-town heroes.) Hellships, to me, is primarily
about freedom. Both from the forces of capitalism that all of us
struggle with AND the boundaries of what is considered "political"
music. we support anarchist organizations throughout Cascadia, and we
are firmly in solidarity with the Pacific Northwest Grand Jury
Resistors, who are still being detained in Federal prison simply for
refusing to cooperate with Federal "authorities.""

"released 08 November 2012
Recorded and Mixed by Nicolas Trovato, M. Platino and A. Medinas in Estudios MG and Randolph Carter Studios.
Produced by asilo.
Cover art by A. Medinas
Geografías composed by asilo; lyrics by Ignacio Dal Pra.
Wardance composed by Killing Joke"
A new single from a Buenos Aires-based doom/crust band that was already featured on my blog. The first track will be included in their first full-length album, which is expected to be released in early 2013. Won't recommend this single to everyone, but fans of sludge/doom drone may find it interesting.

I don't know much about this band, except they've sent me this free promo EP about a month and a half ago, and it turned out to be really good and intense technical death metal. Looks like they have close ties to the hardcore/grind scene of Michigan and Indiana.

"For Fans of: Origin, Dying Fetus, Behemoth, Those Who Lie Beneath, Deadwater Drowning, and Between The Buried and Me" (facebook)

Thanks to X. for posting this great album! Unfortunately I still have a persistent problem with my connection which doesn't allow me to upload files larger than ~15-20 MB (therefore no reuploads in the recent few days), so I'll use X.'s link.
If I understood him correctly, ATLS have disbanded just a few days ago. It's a shame that a such interesting project with a more than 10 years long history of musical development remained so underrated. BTW, I remember receiving one or two emails from them an year or two ago, to which I tried to respond, but got no answer whatsoever.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Haut&Court (which means "hang them high" or something along these lines) are a 3-piece anarchist grindcore/mathcore band from Strasbourg. This EP is short yet very powerful, I think it's comparable to "Gleichschritt" by Neuron (one of the best crust-influenced death/grind albums, in my opinion). Recommended!

P.S. There's one more grindcore band from France that deserves your attention. They're called Filthy Charity, and a download link for their split w/ Wardead can be found here. (However, I'm not sure if I correctly understood what they wrote to me in their email, and if they want this split to be posted on my blog too)

Now it's time for some really - I mean, REALLY - rare and obscure stuff. There's absolutely no info about this band, and even the date of this release is dubious - it's most likely from 2007, but there's a possibility it was recorded during the 08/08/08 war. Google search yields no results for "Mdzhreni", but it's probably because the transcription is wrong - however, I know neither Georgian language (which differs drastically from all the world languages), nor their alphabet, so I have no idea how this band is called correctly. Anyway, this demo consists of 3 tracks of very raw and angry d-beat/punk, all under 1 minute long. Only for fans of primitive/lo-fi stuff.

BTW, I doubt if this band has ever existed (and not a hoax like AAIL) - because there's no punk scene in Georgia, except for a few apolitical punk/alternative bands in Tbilisi. Well, some of them are actually quite good (i.e. Outsider and Butaforia), but it's a separate matter. I seriously doubt if there currently are any dis-, crust, or just anarcho-punk bands in Georgia (or in the whole Caucasus for that matter), and more so - if there were any 5 years ago.

The metal scene there isn't much bigger, consisting of only a handful of bands, all of them from Tbilisi. The situation is slightly better in the neighbouring Armenia - at least there's a sizable amount of alternative rock fans (because of SOAD and Louna), and a growing metal scene. However, the people there are mostly religious to a fault, so at least a half of Armenian bands claiming to play black metal are in fact "unblack". Things are quite hard there for punks too - not so long ago the only DIY club in Yerevan was set on fire by two right wing extremists. Despite all that, Armenia remains the only country in the region to hold an annual metal festival (Highlands Metalfest). Yes, it's mostly used as a "safe haven" for Iranian metal bands, but at last 3 bands from both Georgia and Armenia participate each year too + even some world-class bands (Saturnus, Throes of Dawn, and Horse the Band). Don't know if any Russian bands participated there, though (except for Arkona in 2007).

P.S. Perhaps I should try to contact Darknagar Recs., the only known underground label based out of North Caucasus, and ask if they know anything about Mdzhreni. AFAIK, this label is run by Alextos Georgiadi, a Pontic Greek living in Pyatigorsk, who's playing in a BM band called Atra Hora. Judging from his VK page, politically he resembles me 7-10 years ago ;)

UPD: it turned out that the correct Georgian spelling is "მძღრენი" ("mdzghreni"). Still don't understand what it means, but it's most likely some slang word or curse.

One more band from the Balkans that deserves your attention. Atomski Rat ("Nuclear War") are a 4-piece band from Serbia (Šid) that was formed with an intention to play punk/thrash, and the end result turned out to be a mix of noisy hardcore, crust/d-beat, and crossover thrash. Looks like the spirit of 80's is still alive in ex-Yugoslavian (especially Serbian) metal scene, punks and metalheads unite!

"IAMDISEASE is a Slovenian band playing dark and angry hardcore with strong influences of metal, crust and sludge. Their music deals with the darker sides of human nature and the monstrosities of the information society. However, their message is not surrender and despair, but hope in changes for the better of everyone.The bandmembers play or used to play in Elodea, Man in the shadow, Kennybal smith, A Murder Theory, The Hoax Program, Low punch, and others. FFO: Integrity, Slayer, His Hero is Gone...This is our debut album released via Storm Inside Records in October 2012. CD is limited to 100 copies" facebook / bandcamp

"The album is apolitical but I think it goes well with your blog concept
because a lot of the concept and lyrics in this EP are influenced by the
British poet William Blake who was anti-imperialist" Besides this, I have very little info about the project, but the music is interesting, even though the quality of its production is noticeably amateur. "Dance To The Gods" sounds almost like blackened dark-electro.

DOWNLOAD
A new mini album from a Texas-based anarchist DIY band whose music is strongly influenced by the Spanish metallic crust scene (Ictus, Madame Germen, etc.), as well as Gather, 7 Generations, Undying and Crystal Lake. However, I can't say it's metal (and the member of downpour. themselves don't label their music as metal), it's just crust-influenced hardcore/powerviolence with agressive vocals.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Rifle Diet are an anarcho-crustcore band from Minneapolis, MN. They're a part of Minneapolis punk/metal scene along with Bellow, Youwretch and Morality Crisis; their guitarist also plays in Youwretch. Some more info from the band themselves:

"We are ex-members of Garmonbozia (blackened crust) and In Defence
(hardcore punk) who got together after our singer Mariko decided to
start a band after the demise of Garmonbozia. We originally started
out 5 years ago as a more fastcore style band called Thrash Compactor
but after some lineup changes and with our style getting heavier and
darker we decided to change our name to Rifle Diet and put out our
unreleased Thrash Compactor material as a split with our new stuff. Our name comes from a railroad strike during 1877 where the owner of one
of the biggest railroads on the East coast of the US recommended giving
strikers "a rifle diet for a few days and see how
they like that kind of bread". You can read more about the strike here if you are interested.Our
split record came out in 2012 and is currently available through
Profane Existence as 7" vinyl (part of a package deal) and through our
bandcamp page as a free download of the Rifle Diet side"bandcamp

"The band is Teenage Suicide and hails from Brazil (from São Paulo state). It's a relatively
new band, functioning so far as a solo project, but it will change in a
near future. Volume 1 was released (digitally) in June, this year, and i
started making some physical copies last month (October), which are
almost all gone. TS takes influences from all kind of classic and modern
Crust, Hardcore and Black Metal bands (and a little bit of Noise creeps
its way in). As far as ideology goes, TS is far leftist. I don't try to
stick solely to Anarchism or Communism, but instead, incorporating
every bits i find most accurate, fair, etc. (and you'll also find bits
of nihillism and irony/sarcasm)"Well, I think it isn't great (the album sounds too "digital" and monotonous, and the slow/noisy parts don't help), but it isn't bad either, so if you like DIY cybergrind, you may find "Vol.1" interesting. Looking forward for TS to become a full band.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Maniak Cop are a new band from Murmansk (the very north of Russia, beyond the Arctic Circle). Not much is known about them, except they're a part of anarcho-punk/rockabilly scene of Murmansk, but their debut EP "All Cops Are Maniaks" is definitely worth attention. Looks like we've got our first local blackened crust/ska project in the vein of Leper or Dancehall Satan! (and definitely no worse than these bands)

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Drukne (formerly known as The Sons Of Dead Druids) are an atmospheric black metal band from Indiana. The lyrics on this demo are based on Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", and deal primarily with Nietzsche's concept of "Overman", interpreted as a "self-created transcendence" (the spirit that
drives man to achieve and to push himself beyond himself, without any
metaphysical implications). Yes, I'm aware that concept was used in various kinds of far-right propaganda, and by a lot of NSBM bands, but Drukne is in no way right-wing. As for the music - yes, it's raw, and maybe some of you won't like this kind of "free improvisation black metal" (as it was tagged on last.fm), but i think it's definitely interesting, and if you have listened to the demo by TSODD, then you probably have an idea of what to expect from this one.

These tracks weren't actually intended for publishing, because X. (the person behind Printemps Noir) considered this demo as a failure, and released it only as a cassette for friends (not for the broad audience). However, a 128kbps rip of the cassette has leaked to metalarea.org. After I stumbled upon it, I contacted X., who sent me a 320kbps version of "Front..." with a permission to do whatever I want with it, and the following release notes:

"I recorded in this Summer in England and France in a particularly fucked-up and angry frame of mind... Anyone who downloads this and complains about how bad it is is stupid and deserves everything they get. This is True Black Metal Outsider Art, only for the fucked-up and hard of hearing. It's not an 'album' and I'm not a 'band'"

Musically, "Front..." contains of roughly equal amount of minimalistic dark ambient and very lo-fi black metal. It's indeed very raw and noisy, but it serves the purpose to reflect the atmosphere of insanity very well. Anyway, this album is actually quite good for its genre, somehow reminding me of Shapeless' demos. Definitely recommened to all the fanatics of primitive black metal and noise punk (BTW, according to X., he was highly inspired by early Siberian punk scene, which always was one of my favourites as well).

P.S. Although X. has no desire for a self-promotion and would prefer to remain anonymous, he's open for doing a split EP with anyone English- or French-speaking who plays BM (no NSBM), dark ambient, punk, grindcore, thrash, etc.

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About the blog

First of all: there's probably a lot of broken English on this blog. Hope it isn't that bad, at least I'm trying to do my best. Feel free to point me to any of my mistakes, if there are any. -B.K.

If you're playing in a band and want to see your music featured on our blog - just send a download link of your demo to us:

- oiseau [@] riseup [.] net - for basically anything RABM-related, but she is generally interested in atmospheric, depressive, and post-BM stuff, as well as the projects from Latin America (and Mexico in particular). You can also contact her via facebook.

- band name, release name/year, country of origin, album cover image (or at least band photo or logo);

- track listing (properly numbered);

- preferably a full release (not samples or streaming) in mp3/m4a/ogg (128kbps or higher bitrate). You may use any free filesharing site (preferably Mediafire) to host your files; or you can use Bandcamp (but then make sure your release is available for free download). *** NO LARGE ATTACHMENTS PLEASE!!! ***;

- any other info about you and your release (links to any sites related to your band, release notes, etc.);

- reason why you want your music to be featured on our blog (note that it's not just another metal blog, and even if your band is apolitical, it still should be somehow in the spirit of RABM movement).

Most of the uploads here are band sanctioned. Anyway, if you for some reason don't want to see your music here, contact us via email (rabmblog [@] gmail [.] com), and we'll consider taking it down.

If you wish to become a contributor for this blog, send a message to rabmblog [@] gmail [.] com. The obvious requirements are: being supportive of the RABM movement, good proficiency in English, and willingness to review lots of albums on a regular basis.

FAQ

Q.: Which kinds of music are featured on this blog?

A.: - (primarily) RABM or Red & Anarchist Black Metal: all kinds of black metal-related music charged with radical leftist (anarchist, libertarian socialist, eco-anarchist, etc.) political views. Some of the bands featured here may be not openly political, but all of them are RABM-friendly;

- blackened crust/hardcore/punk (only if it's openly RABM-friendly, or if it's just very good music; we have no intention to collect here all the blackened punk in existence);

A.: Most bands nowadays have a bandcamp page, where you can but their stuff online (usually for an arbitrary price). It's the most convinient way to support the band. If your favourite band don't have a bandcamp or bigcartel page, try to find out in which distro you can find their albums/merch. Of course, go to concerts if you have such opportunity.

Q.: How can I offer my financial support to this blog, or the RABM movement in general?

A.: Unfortunately right we don't have an opportunity to accept donations, but we hope we'll be able to set it up soon.

Q.: What is the connection between black metal and hardcore/punk/crust?

A.: It's a well-established fact that the connection between black metal and punk scenes existed since the early days of BM (think Venom, early Bathory, early Mayhem and early Sodom on one side, and Amebix, Discharge and Axegrinder on another). Recently this mix of BM and hardcore punk got a new life in the form of blackened crust (thanks to Black Kronstadt / Iskra in first place). And don't forget about Cascadian black metal bands with their radical environmentalist ideology, often to the extent of radical eco-anarchism or "pro-nature/anti-humanity" ideas.

Q.: What's your main ideology?

A.: This blog is generally written from a position of anarchism without adjectives; however, the RABM scene is very diverse ideologically. Let us end on this, as this blog isn't quite a right place for purely political debates; if you want to learn or argue about anarchism/other ideologies, there's a lot of specialized FAQs/blogs/forums for you.

Q.: Isn't black metal supposed to be apolitical?

A.: Supposed by whom? I personally don't think so, but if you think that political awareness should have no place in "true" black metal, you can feel free to call the bands featured on here "blackened punk" or whatever you want. It should be noted, though, that a lot of these bands doesn't openly talk about politics in their lyrics, exactly because they think it wouldn't be suitable for black metal. - B.K.

Q.: Isn't RABM just an "answer" to NSBM?

A.: While RABM is definitely against NSBM and any other kind of far-right crap in metal scene, it's most emphatically a self-sufficient movement and not any kind of "answer to NSBM". Similarly, while RABM is 100% pro liberation from any kinds of religious tyranny, it isn't a movement against any particular religion (Christianity, Islam, or any other).

Q.: What's your opinion on Satanism?

A.: The so-called "Hollywood Satanism", which is often found in black metal, is, in our opinion, nothing more than inverted Christianity, so we aren't big on it. Many of us are simply atheists, pagans of all kinds, gnostics, etc. We also don't share the notion that only genuine theistic Satanists / Devil-worshippers can play "real" black metal (this would exclude such bands as Venom, Bathory, Immortal, Summoning, and many many others). Additionally, the very term "Satanism" is quite vague, and can't be narrowed down to LaVeyan Satanism (which is heavily disliked by many black metallers), or whatever else. LaVey had some good points, but in general his philosophy can be described just as "Ayn Rand with some occult tinge".

Q.: What about misanthropy and nihilism?

A.: To put it in short: we don't hate everyone and everything (and we don't think there's anyone﻿ who truly does). We just hate these traits of humanity which make true anarchist society most likely infeasible in the foreseeable future.

Q.: Collectivism or individualism?

A.: There actually is no "hard" contradiction between these two terms. Individualism is simply an outlook emphasizes the moral worth of the individual and its right not to be oppressed by the state or some social group. It doesn't contradict at all with standing up for your rights along with a group of like-minded individuals. It also worth noting that the early black metal scene didn't promote individualism that much (see "black metal circles").

Q.: Who coined the term "RABM"?

A.: Hard to say, but there's an apparent similarity to RASH ("Red & Anarchist Skinheads"). Here's the very first mention of "RABM" we could find (August 2005). The term was popularized by our last.fm group (and later - by this blog) since 2009.

Q.: Do you know the ideology of the band X? It isn't obvious if they're NSBM or not...

A.: Sorry, we don't know, do your own research. It's often hard to say anything certain about a band's views, if the members themselves aren't open about it. We also don't advice using various "lists of nazi bands" etc. as a reference, as most of them are full of bullshit. Similarly, forum posts or blog comments (especially anonymous ones) generally aren't a reliable source for anything. In one particular case, we had an anonymous comment claiming that the members of Timebomb are now playing in a fascist band called SPQR. Later it turned out that it were members of a completely other Italian band with a similar name (Timebombs). Hopefully that'd be a good example of how important fact-checking is.

Q.: I've seen some of the albums posted here in the same distro with some albums by right-leaning bands...

A.: Unfortunately it's often the case with distros and labels that distribute stuff regardless of its political affiliation. Even Austin Lunn of Panopticon complained about Pagan Flames (the label which released his "Collapse" and "Social Disservices" LPs) having NSBM in their distro, so things like these are just unavoidable.

Q.: Some bands on this blog have Burzum on their list on influences. Isn't Varg Vikernes a nazi?